By Grace Fetsick

Theatre students of all grades have dreamed of this moment.  Senior play!  This is a tradition to theatre alumni alike. The theatre class produces their own full length, two act play.  This play is directed, cast, performed, designed, and created by theatre four students. The class of 2024’s senior play was none other than Don Zolodis’s Elsewhere.  In this play we follow four highschool students living in a boarding school as they get transported into this other world where they must confront their traumas.  The play was directed by seniors, Grace Fetsick and Tyler McNulty.  As one of the directors myself, here is some of the inside scoop of how everything went down. 

Picking the play: Tyler and I decided we would direct senior play in April of Junior year (2023). We knew by May we had to decide on the play our class would produce, since our summer work would be to read and annotate the play.  We went through tons of plays during our search, which ranged in all different genres.  Elsewhere stood out to us because of its content matter, it was different than most plays, but exactly what our class needed.  

Auditions/Casting: Since our class had only eleven actors and three designers, we had to introduce the idea of character tracks, in this we had actors play multiple different roles. They had to audition for these roles in interview-like questions.  We decided this during our summer meetings with Wojcik.   The main four roles, “core four” did not have to take on multiple roles.  Their auditions were reading through sections of the scenes, to see which group dynamics worked best.  The decision making process was tough, but everyone fit their roles amazingly. 

Creating the World: One of the first things we did to create the world of Elsewhere was raid the scene shop. We took out anything and everything that could be used as a set piece, prop, or just to have.  Then we slowly pulled apart and built the set pieces we saw on stage.  Special shoutout to designer, Luke Mariano, who hand built pieces of our set. 

Rehearsal: Since the first day of school, we were hard at work with the after school rehearsals. The leadership team which consisted of Cynthia Duong, Grace Fetsick, Mikayla Confair, and Tyler McNulty, met after school every Tuesday and Thursday.  Little by little we started to map out the rehearsal schedule and transitions between scenes.  When rehearsals with actors started, we staged the play beat by beat.

Tech: As we perfected the play, time was of the essence.  We were able to fit in an extra dress rehearsal since we stayed on schedule.  Running the play with both sound and light cues was challenging at first.  But with owning up to our mistakes and persistence, we were able to pull it together for the final show. 

Shows: There were two showings of Elsewhere, one was November 15th at 3:00 and the second was November 16th at 6:00.  Both shows ran smoothly with minimal problems.  The actors really gave it their all for their final performance. The show was a success. 

Senior play wasn’t by any means easy, but it was rewarding.  One instance of this was creating a make-shift bird cage that Zeke, the Amber Phoenix, would break through, the cage would also have to be easily reassembled.  All of that, while remaining safe to the cast.  Building this large structure to have stored backstage was a challenge.  The breaking and reassembling of the cage was something we figured out with support of Ms. Wojcik’s husband, Will.  When we entered the dress rehearsal with the cage being made out of pvc pipes, we thought it would run smoothly.  Instead, the cage refused to break, then fell apart.  We spent our next class period re-taping the structure, all we could do is hope that the cage would work.  By showtime, it was able to come apart and be brought off of stage safely, encaging the Amber Phoenix and saving the show.  The senior class came together to create something amazing. As a director of the play, I have to say I’m beyond proud of what we accomplished.  This was truly an experience that everyone in our graduating class will never forget.